Retired Brig. Gen. Stan Brown's legacy remembered

The Blue Eagle Honor Guard folds the flag during funeral services for Brig. Gen. Stanford E. Brown, USAF retired, March commander and community leader in the amphitheater at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside on Thursday, Dec. 1.

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Retired Brig. Gen. Stan Brown, the man perhaps most responsible for bringing the national cemetery to Riverside, was buried there Thursday, Dec. 1, 42 years after he stood on the site with Admiral John McCain -- the Arizona senator’s father -- and convinced him this was the place to build it.

About 200 people attended the service for Brown, who died Nov. 10 at 87.

During his life, Brown was a fighter pilot, the commander of March Air Force Base, a Riverside County planning commissioner and a mover and shaker in the Riverside community.

He was remembered by those at the service as an imposing, stern character who did things his way and had little patience for those that might have gotten in his way. But he was also praised for his ability to work with people, for his friendship and for his love of the community and his family.

State Sen. Richard Roth, himself an Air Force veteran, said even before he was stationed at then March Air Force Base, he’d heard stories of Brown.

When the two finally met, they were both retired. They were meeting with an Air Force captain who didn’t seem to appreciate Brown’s contribution in establishing the Raincross Trophy, an Air Force award.

The captain, tasked with taking on the responsibility of maintaining the award, made the mistake of trying to tell Brown about the trophy.

“Stan started peeling the skin off this captain, layer by layer,” Roth said. “I left that meeting, concluding he was a bit gruff.”

Not long after that first meeting, he added, “I learned beneath that gruff exterior was a kind and gentle man who always had the interest of his community and the Air Force in mind, always.”

The military service included the folding of the flag that covered Brown’s casket, a rifle salute and the playing of taps. Not long after the start of the ceremony, four single-engine fighter planes roared overhead in the missing-man formation.

Brig. Gen. Russell Muncy, the current commander of March Air Reserve Base, said Brown would have enjoyed the interruption.

“I would apologize for the noise,” Muncy said to those gathered, referring to the engines of jets from the base across the freeway, “but I think I might hear from someone who’s very close to me right now,” he added, looking at Brown’s casket.

“Stan Brown lived for that sound. I really believe he lived for March Field and March Air Base.”

Brown spent four years at March, from 1973-1977, and was commander for the final two. Not long after retiring from the Air Force in 1983, he returned to Riverside and became a permanent resident.

He worked with local officials and those in Washington to protect the base from being closed during rounds of congressional cutbacks. With U.S. Vets, he pushed for a new facility for homeless veterans. And he helped bring the Medal of Honor memorial to Riverside National Cemetery in 1999, making it the first national cemetery west of the Mississippi with monuments. Other monuments have been added to the cemetery since.

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